The Tongue-Cut Sparrow from Japanese folklore shows a collectible lesson that can be shown throughout time; letting anger and greed taint judgments can lead to dire consequences. The old lady in the story had a bad temper and was greedy; those two personality traits put together are what caused her down fall. The old lady is clearly seen to have a temper in the beginning. In the beginning when the sparrow pecks at some of the paste that she is using to starch her linens she gets angry and cuts the sparrows tongue, and the sparrow flies away. She also got angry after the old man got home from looking for the sparrow, scolding him and asking him where he has been wasting the day away. After the old lady is done yelling at him the old man produces a basket that the sparrow had given him and when they opened it, it contained jewels and riches; this is where the greedy side of the old lady comes in. The old lady goes to see the sparrow, the sparrow does not offer her anything but she wouldn’t be deterred, and she asked for something to remember her visit and the sparrow produced two baskets, a heavy one and a light one. The old lady took the heavier of the two and set off for her home. Curiosity got the better of the old lady and on her way home she opened the basket to see how many riches that she would inherit, but no riches came only the hobgoblins and elves that came to torture her Greediness and anger aren’t’ good traits to have, but a lot of people have them anyway. With greediness one is only thinking of themselves and what they can gain without thinking of the consequences to themselves or others. For example if a burglar steals something from a store or house they only want things that they can’t or don’t have. With anger they are hurting the people around them either mentally or worse physically. We can learn a lot from the old lady’s anger and greediness. Don’t let anger or greed overcome or there may be horrible consequences.
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